Task 8

Create a Pass the paper Powerpoint 

Today’s post is about a very nice speaking activity for students of the first year of Bachillerato. It is a game called ‘Pass the paper’, and we have created it using Power Point. This game is a very dynamic way to make students speak, and we can use it in many ways depending on the content or skills we want students to practice (vocabulary, grammar, etc.).

In our case, we want them to practice modal verbs, so what we propose them is to complete some sentences in which there are modal verbs, for example If you are feeling sick, you should... or The baby can’t stop crying because…

Once we have the sentences, we need to choose a funny song for the presentation, because the game consists on putting the music while the students pass the paper ball to each other until the teacher stops the music. Whoever has the paper ball when the music stops needs to complete the sentence showed in the Power Point. When the student finishes the sentence, the music starts again, and he or she must pass the ball to another classmate. The ball must run around the whole classroom until the teacher stops it again and it is the turn of another student to complete the sentence.

This way, students revise modal verbs while improving their speaking skills. In addition, this game fosters creativity and motivation, as they need to think how to finish the sentences, and the dynamic and music may be very funny for them.

Here you can download myPass the paper Power Point 

Task 7

Listening Worksheet from ESL Short stories        

The activity we share this time is a listening activity for students in 3^rd of ESO. There is no specific language content, it is rather focused on the listening comprehension, which is very important for students and usually difficult for them.

For creating the worksheet, we have chosen the audio from ESL Short Stories, a webpage which offers a lot of short stories for creating listening activities. It also offers comprehension and vocabulary activities and even games related to each story. In this case, we have chosen a story called ‘The doctor’salmost perfect children’.

Pre-listening task:

Before listening to the story, we propose the students a pre-listening task to give them a little bit of context about the story. This first task will be a warming-up to give them some clues about what they will hear. Students are supposed to discuss in pairs two statements which are related to the story. Then, they have to share their opinions with the rest of the class.

While-listening tasks:

After this task, we will explain the students they have to do tasks number 2 (comprehension) and 3 (vocabulary) while listening to the story. The first time we put the listening, they have to do task 2, which is about filling in the gaps the words missing from the story. Then, we put the audio again and tell them to do task 3. This task is about finding synonyms for the words given. They will find all the synonyms if they pay attention to the story.

Post-listening tasks:

Once the students have listened to the story twice, we ask them to do tasks 4, 5, and 6. In task number 4, we ask them to explain the meaning of an idiom that appears in the story, and also to give the Spanish equivalent. Then, they have to do task number 5, which is a comprehension activity. They are supposed to answer two brief questions about the story using their own words. Task number 6 is also about comprehension, and students have to choose the correct option a, b, c, or d to answer some questions about the story.

Finally, we propose the students a speaking task. We will arrange a debate: they will discuss if it is better to be an only child or to have sisters and brothers. This topic has some relation with the story they have just heard, and is an excuse to practice the speaking skill. The teacher will divide the classroom in two groups: one for those who think being an only child is better, and another one for those who prefer having siblings.

You can listen to the story here.

And here you are the worksheet we have created:

Task 6

Create a video with Animoto

Today we share an activity made with Animoto, an on-line tool that enables us to create videos using music, images, videos and text. It is very easy and allows us to make videos for different occasions.

In our case, we have created a possible activity or project for students in 3^rd of ESO. The activity consists on creating a short documentary of a wild animal using Animoto. Our video is an example for students to create their own. They may use, at least, photographs and text in their videos. To help them a bit, we provide them some topics they can write about, although they don’t need to follow them all:

• Where is the animal from?

• What kind of animal is it?

• Which is its habitat?

• What can it do?

• Is it an endangered species?

• What does it eat?

Through this activity, we make students practice their writing skills, and at the same time we foster creativity. Moreover, students will love creating their own video, so they will be motivated and their written productions will be better. Regarding the language content we want them to deal with, the creation of a documentary may imply using, specially, the present simple, but also the modal verb can and lot of vocabulary about wild animals and nature.

You can also take a look at my video on https://animoto.com/play/hQX9szX7yvuorSDadAh6fQ

Task 5

Write a book with Tar Heel Reader

In this post we prose a creative writing activity. We have used the online tool Tar Heel Reader to create a short story for students in the first year of ESO. Our story is called Andrew’s daily routine, and it’s about a 10-year-old boy and his habits during a normal day, so we have used a lot of frequency adverbs, Present Simple and vocabulary about habits and routines.

The topics of the curriculum we want to develop with this activity belong to the minimum contents in the curriculum for 1^st of ESO. The grammar and vocabulary topics are specified as follows:

GRAMMAR	VOCABULARY
-          Present simple tense -          Adverbs of frequency	-          Verbs: daily activities and movement activities -          Family -          Hobbies -          Transport -          School -          House -          Animals

• Understand the information of English texts.

• Use basic reading comprehension strategies: identifying the topic of a text using textual and non-textual elements, using previous knowledge, inferring meaning from context, etc.

• Write short texts adequate to their level of knowledge.

• Incorporate the ICT in the learning process.

• Present a positive attitude towards the foreign language.

• Assimilate the use and construction of Present Simple.

• Recognise vocabulary related to the daily routine.

• Identify and learn adverbs of frequency.

• Use the punctuation marks properly.

• Write short texts about daily routine using correctly the present simple tense.

• Express habits and personal likes.

• Show creativity in the writing activity.

According to the curriculum, with our writing activity we try to stablish the following general objectives:

The main aim of the activity is to provide the students an example so they can create their own short story which will be assessed. We also intend students acquire some specific objectives regarding the topic we have chosen:

The assessed task will consist on writing a short story following the example provided. The target language will be English and the topic they have to develop will be daily routine. To assess them, the teacher will consider the grammar correctness, the use of varied vocabulary, the use of the adverbs of frequency, and of course the creativity. Copying literally the teacher’s example or other student’s work will be penalized.  

Here you are the link to my story on Tar Heel Reader.

Task 4

Create an image based speaking activity using VoiceThread 

This time, we use a very practical online tool to promote creative learning: VoiceThread. This tool lets us create multimedia albums where we can insert documents, images, audio and video with the added value that the visitor can leave comments through a microphone, through a webcam or through the keyboard, and can even draw with a pencil on the slides and videos paused.

In our case, we have selected five photographs and have recorded our voice asking several questions about them to create a speaking activity for students in 4th of ESO. Students are supposed to see the five images and at the same time to listen to the teacher's voice asking them one or several questions of each picture, like Do you know who wrote this? or What does this picture represent? Then, they will have to answer the questions and leave a comment with their recorded voices. 

This is a very funny activity for students, and at the same time a very good option to make them speak in English. It is also positive because this kind of activity let them express their thoughts and opinions and we can use the photographs to make them reflect on important aspects, like human rights, personal identity, racism, etc. Teachers can also introduce students many kinds of cultural items, like art, geography, history, cinema, music, etc.

Finally, we will ask students to create a VoiceThread themselves following the examples we have provided them, so they will need to choose a photograph and then record a sentence talking about what do they think, what is the photo about, why do they like the photo they have chosen, etc. 

Here you are the link to my VoiceThread: https://voicethread.com/new/share/6652763/

Task 3

Create an image based writing activity using PicLit

Here we show a PicLit, which is an image linked with some words to develop students' creative writing. In the example we provide, there is a photograph of some flowers on a bench with the sentence '... and they never see each other again'. 

The aim of the activity is to make students write a story which ends with the previous sentence. This way, we give the students an excuse to write and foster their creativity. Afterwards, we can ask them to create a PicLit using the webpage http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx

                                                   
Click here to see this image in the PicLit official website: http://www.piclits.com/viewpoem.aspx?PoemId=257657

Task 2

Create a set of worksheets for A2 level students 

With the following set of worksheets, A2 level students can practise the irregular verbs, and the vocabulary topic ‘describing people’.

First of all, we show the grammar content, which are the irregular verbs. There are three activities: the first one is a fill in the gaps activity, the second one is an alphabet soup in which students need to find the negative form of some verbs, and the last one is about putting some sentences in the negative form, so they also practise the negative form of past simple.

The second part of the worksheet is the vocabulary. Students will learn some adjectives of feelings, appearance and personality to be able to describe people. They have several adjectives and are supposed to classify them into the three categories. 

The following part is a very short writing activity regarding to descriptions too. Students will need to write several sentences comparing the photo of two girls using the adjectives and the information provided.

Finally, there is a game.  We present the students a cross-word in which they have to write the infinitive form of the verbs given.

Task 1

Publish a summary of the legal framework of the use of ICT in the ESO

Marco legal de las TIC en la ESO

Real Decreto 1105/2014, de 26 de diciembre, por el que se establece el currículo básico de la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y del Bachillerato

Debido a la era tecnológica en la que la sociedad está inmersa, la incorporación de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación en el sistema educativo resulta primordial para que los alumnos se integren en la realidad cambiante que nos rodea. Hoy en día, empleamos en nuestra rutina diaria una gran cantidad de dispositivos que requieren ciertas habilidades y capacidades. El contacto con las nuevas tecnologías es hoy algo necesario en todos los ámbitos, por lo que los alumnos deben saber utilizarlas correctamente para poder aplicarlas en el ámbito laboral y profesional.

Más allá de la mera enseñanza de herramientas tecnológicas, lo que debe implantarse en las aulas es una sensibilización en las competencias, destrezas y aptitudes que les permitan al alumnado un aprendizaje permanente y una adaptación a las posibles demandas que el campo tecnológico ofrece. Por todo ello, es esencial que los docentes tengan un dominio de las tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación para poder transmitir a los alumnos su uso, pero también los límites éticos y los aspectos morales que implican.

Es por ello que la Unión Europea lleva tiempo trabajando en la instauración de un marco común europeo para el desarrollo y comprensión de la competencia digital en Europa (DIGCOMP). Actualmente, la competencia digital es una de las competencias básicas que contempla el currículo de la ESO, por lo que se integra como elemento transversal en todas las materias durante la etapa de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria.

Además, uno de los objetivos de la ESO es precisamente desarrollar destrezas básicas en la utilización de las fuentes de la información, entre las que se incluyen las nuevas tecnologías, con el fin último de adquirir conocimientos, por lo que los alumnos deben adquirir una cierta preparación en el campo de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación.

Sin embargo, las TIC no sólo se trabajan de manera general durante toda la etapa de la ESO, sino que también existe la asignatura como tal de Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación. Se trata de una asignatura específica para los alumnos de la opción de enseñanzas aplicadas de 4º de la ESO mediante la cual los estudiantes adquieren las habilidades necesarias para emplear correctamente los medios informáticos actuales para integrarse eficientemente en la vida laboral.